Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-01-30
Abou, Gnng.weIIs and Clear water.
(CInclnnau Commercial Gazette

About Gnng-WeiIs and Clear water.
(Cincinnau Commercial Gszette.l
There has been great question as 10
what could be done by an immense city
not situated on a river for water, and
il has been curiously solved by Brook
lyn. \, Y. city Of 100000 inhabi-
tants. Brooklyn has no river. IL has
drawn water from ponds, but at last it
has adopted n system of driven wells,
the history Of Which is very curious.
They have in the Brooklyn service
four systems OF wells. each with a
pump, and the four pumps draw from
seven hundred wells each two inches in
| diameter The wells are tubed, of
course. Yhey 60 down one hundred
feet, and passing through layers Of rock
strike beautiful gravel. in which The
water flows pure and without limit.
Without this resource ii is difficult to
tell what would have happened TO the
multitude in Brooklyn during the re-
| markablc drought three years ago
A letter from that city states the case
! fOrcibIy, rs follows, as to the success
of what is called 1.-The gang-well sys-
tenn:
"Our system in Brooklyn has been a
cO0iplCfc success. Our contracts called
for a total of 1S,GO0,O00 gallons. In
1885, during season of the most
severe and prolonged drought, these
gang-well plants yielded twenty-five
million gallons continuously, and Mt
times considerably III excess Of twenty
five millions.
Owing to the peculiaritios OF con-
stmction every drop of water must per-
colate through the soil To sufficient
depth to thoroughly tiltrate and purify
the same. In consequence Of such fill
tration the water is perfectly clear and
cold, being of an even temperature win
ter and summer varying from Is TO %
dcgrees--53 Is good average.
To bring the matter nearer home. the
people Of Wyoming were some time ago
moved to activity with respect to their
water-supply by necessities. and the eX-
ample was before them of the Lockland
starch and paper-mills, which procured |
an abundant supply through driven |
wells, at the depth OF one hundred feet
The experience is very interesting |
and instructive The Wyoming driven |
well is SIX inches in diameter, and 10 |
feet deep and cost S230 At the bot
tom Of the tube was placed McCOOk |
point. costing $50 and $500 steam |
pump pours forth upon demand i,SJ0 |
barrels day of perfectly pure water
which has the temperature rs II Is dis
charged OF y degrees the year around.
The town reservoir is q 200-barrel tank,
and the pump ills it in an hour. The
experts announce the supply absolutely
uncontaminated and ine&haustiblc.
In driving the Wyoming well there |
was found first thirty feet of yellow
clay. then a layer OF limestone few
inches thick, then ten feet Of green
clay and ten feet of blue clay, stratum
Of fine gravel, five or six feet OF clay.
layer of boulders and sand. layer OF
limestone rock, clay again, and at the
depth Of eighty-three feet sand and
water-after this nothing but sand ami
water for seyenty-twO feet, whore the
boring was stopped
The water the people OF Wyoming
eniov. we are assured, beats the Ohio
river at its best. The LAYERS, through
which the well VAS driven, insure the
water against possible contamination.
It is question worthy consideration.
What would be the cost OF supplying
Cincinnati in this way, 10y reaching the
sand below the four layers Of clay and
two Of rock, III some well-selected spot
in the Mill-creek Valley
If the people Of Wyoming could
drive a well six inches in diameter 10
the depth Of $50 feet for $3.50, and for
$3.50 put pump at work. filling a 300
barrel tank in an hour, about 500, 600
would put wells enough down to the
grGyel--say in Ayondale to supply the
city OF Cincinnati; and it would not
cost more than $500, as money goes in
Wyoming. TO see at what depth the in
exhaustible supply of water as pure a,
is yielded by any well in the world
could be reached. The water that Is
found under sixty feet of clay and
layers of rock is protected from all
possible impurity. Besides the wells
are piped
The Brooklyn driyen-well system was
described 10y Professor Trowbridge, of
the School Of Mines Columbia College,
New York, in the Sanitary Eaginccr
as follows
This plant is situated on a farm
about two and a half miles beyond East
New York, alongside Of the aqueduct
which supplies water to the city OF
Brooklyn. Water is obtained from one
hundred two-inch tubes lordriven wells
driven from forty 10 one hundred feet
into the ground low means of a simple,
portable pile-driter, worked by hand
These two-inch tubes are driven in
two rows, the rows being fifteen feet
apart, and the tubes in either row being
twelve feet apart. These spaces occu-
pied by the tubes or driyen-wells is
thus small strip OF ground about
eight hundred feet in length and tif-
teen broad. The top of each tube,
Just at the ground surface. IS connected
by cross pipe with horizontal pipe
running along halfway between the
two rows.
4" 1t is found that when a suction.
pump is attached 10 tins horizontal
pipe water is drawn by suction from
all the driven wells at once. Practically :
the pump is not placed at the end OF !
the system, but midway between the !
ends, where there is a common receiver
for the water arriving from the wells
each way. From this receiver pipe ,
enters the pump-house and constitutes 5
the Induction pipe to the pumps. From
the pump-house a discharge or de |
livery enters the Brooklyn aque- !
duct only few feet distant from the /,
pumps.
at is impossible for any one not TO
experience peculiar feeling of sur
prise and wonder when told that this |
simple plant, without excavation for a :
large well, without reservoirs, and with |
out long lines of supplying conduits, is !
nearly 5000, 900 gallons, or y
20, 600 tons, of water daily 10 the city q
Of Brooklyn. Another similar plant at
Jamaica, a few miles beyond, is supply
ing nearly as much more, or a total for .
the two stations of 100000 gallons !;
$50, 900 tons) daily. q
at is unnecessary TO give q descrip- :,